Tampa Mortgages

Clearwater Florida home buyers and sellers enjoying a beautiful sunny September day today may not even realize that the Federal Open Market Committee adjourns from its 6th scheduled meeting of the year, and 7th overall.

So even though you may not realize it, when they adjourn, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke will release a formal statement to the market that will impact us here in Clearwater real estate market. In it, the Fed is expected to announce “no change” to the Fed Funds Rate – so what does that really mean for Clearwater Florida home buyers and sellers?

Currently, the Fed Funds Rate is within a target range of 0.000-0.250 percent. It’s been at this same level since December 2008. Note that the Feds Funds Rate is not “a mortgage rate” — nor is it a a consumerrate of any kind. The Fed Funds Rate is a rate that defines the cost of an overnight loan between banks. And, although the Fed Funds Rate has little direct consequence to everyday Clearwater Florida home owners, it is the basis for Prime Rate, the interest rate on which most consumer cards are based, plus many business loans, too.

Therefore, because the Fed Funds Rate won’t change today, neither will credit card rates. (I know many of us breath a sigh of relief when we hear that)

Tampa Mortgage rates, however, are a different story. Tampa Mortgage ratesshould change today — regardless of what the Fed does. It’s more about what the Fed says. In its statement, the Federal Reserve will highlight strengths and weaknesses in the economy, and threats to growth over the next few quarters.

Depending on how Wall Street interprets these remarks, mortgage rates may rise or fall. If the Fed’s comments signal better-than-expected growth, bond markets should lose and mortgage rates should rise. Conversely, if the Fed’s comments signal worse-than-expected growth, mortgage rates should fall. If you’re actively shopping for a mortgage, it may be prudent to lock your rate ahead of the Fed’s announcement today. The Fed adjourns at 2:15 PM ET. Call your loan officer to lock your rate. The Fed meets 8 times annually.

Cyndee Haydon, along with her husband Jack Haydon 727-710-8036 are full-time Realtors® and owners of the Sandbars To Sunsets Inc and Lead the Sandbars To Sunsets team at Future Home Realty - They are consistently in the Top 1% of Realtors in Pinellas County because they get results and are known for their outrageously happy clients with over 85+ video testimonials from raving fans. Providing the Local Expertise, Proven Results, Communication at the highest level, and a Client Experience that makes others comfortable referring them to those they care about. When looking for a proven professional you can trust - they believe you deserve: Experienced Resort & Second Home Specialist; Accomplished Certified International Property Specialist; Proven Certified Home Luxury Marketing Specialist; Qualified Military Relocation Professional;
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It’s a drag on commerce that’s spilled over onto Wall Street. As experts debate the potential for future seismic activity, traders are taking some of their investment risk off the table.

In trading circles, it’s called “safe haven buying”. When the market gets cloudy, investors often move their cash into relatively safe assets. This includes government-backed securities — mortgage-bonds among them.

Volcanic eruptions and like natural disasters remind us: Tampa mortgage rates change for all sorts of reasons. Some we can predict, most we cannot. There’s literally thousands of influences on the U.S. mortgage market.

If you’ve been shopping for Clearwater FL homes for sale or Clearwater beach condosor floating a mortgage rate, luck’s been on your side. Mortgage rates have fallen post-Eyjafjallajökull. However, as ash clouds dissipate and business resumes worldwide, investors will regain their collective appetite for risk and safe haven buying will reach its natural end.

When that happens, Tampa mortgage rates will rise.

Therefore, if you are in the process of buying a Clearwater home or beach condo use the seismic uncertainty to your advantage. Consider locking your Tampa mortgage rate sooner rather than later — while rates are still low.

Got any questions, just give us, your local Clearwater FL Realtorsa call or talk to your loan officer about locking your rate on the Clearwater FL homes you want to buy.

Cyndee Haydon, along with her husband Jack Haydon 727-710-8036 are full-time Realtors® and owners of the Sandbars To Sunsets Inc and Lead the Sandbars To Sunsets team at Future Home Realty - They are consistently in the Top 1% of Realtors in Pinellas County because they get results and are known for their outrageously happy clients with over 85+ video testimonials from raving fans. Providing the Local Expertise, Proven Results, Communication at the highest level, and a Client Experience that makes others comfortable referring them to those they care about. When looking for a proven professional you can trust - they believe you deserve: Experienced Resort & Second Home Specialist; Accomplished Certified International Property Specialist; Proven Certified Home Luxury Marketing Specialist; Qualified Military Relocation Professional;
(727) 710-8036 - Jack Cell (727) 710-8035 - Cyndee Cell
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Clearwater FL- It’s a busy weekend with the National Open House event. Lots of people checking out Clearwater FL Real Estate. Before you get too excited…have you checked if your Tampa Mortgage preapproval is still valid or is it stale? As the federal home buyer tax credit nears its April 30 end-date (19 days and counting down), there’s a lot of would-be home buyers in Clearwater FL still working to get a home under contract – both first time home buyers and those taking advantage of the move up tax credit.

A piece of advice for all of you looking to buy a home right now: If your Tampa Mortgage pre-qualification and/or pre-approval letter is more than 8 weeks old, it would be smart to have your mortgage lender “re-pre-approve” you. Here’s a short video I found on Youtube that explains the basic pre-approval process you may find helpful (of course you’ll want to talk to a local lender about your specific situation):

Why? Because we live in a dynamic lending market and the mortgage guidelines have been in flux and your original lender letter may now be invalid.

For example, over the past half-dozen months, the majority of Tampa mortgage lenders have reduced their risk tolerance can many of these items have tightened up with respect to:

For Clearwater Beach buyers of Clearwater FL condos for sale and co-ops, even the subject property itself is coming under tighter guidelines and tougher scrutiny. We’ve written about some of these changes before:

Today’s Tampa mortgages require applicants need to be strong on all fronts to make lenders comfortable based on the current risk and problems they’ve experienced. Did you know that it takes more than just good income and credit to get approved anymore and today’s home buyers should revisit their qualifications.

What passed underwriting to get a loan approved in January may not still pass in May. We recently had a client surprised by the fact that even though they had lots of income and verifiable assets their low credit score kept any lender from being willing to finance their mortgage even when planning to put 50% down. Luckily for them, in 3 months they were able to clean some things up and raise their score so we’re set to close next month.

Being pro-active brings other advantages, too. If a mortgage re-pre-approval does unearth an issue, it’ll be easier for every party to the transaction to address and correct it up-front versus trying to clean up a mess once a home’s already under contract and racing the deadlines.

Got questions, just give us, your local Clearwater FL Realtorsa call or talk to your loan officer about your pre-qualification/pre-approval letter before you bid on a Clearwater FL home.

So if you’re looking for Clearwater FL Realtors we’d like you to know that we are passionate about being your Clearwater real estate advocate. We’re committed to delivering Results daily based on Integrity, Knowledge & Experience - helping you find the perfect Clearwater FL homes for sale.

Cyndee Haydon, along with her husband Jack Haydon 727-710-8036 are full-time Realtors® and owners of the Sandbars To Sunsets Inc and Lead the Sandbars To Sunsets team at Future Home Realty - They are consistently in the Top 1% of Realtors in Pinellas County because they get results and are known for their outrageously happy clients with over 85+ video testimonials from raving fans. Providing the Local Expertise, Proven Results, Communication at the highest level, and a Client Experience that makes others comfortable referring them to those they care about. When looking for a proven professional you can trust - they believe you deserve: Experienced Resort & Second Home Specialist; Accomplished Certified International Property Specialist; Proven Certified Home Luxury Marketing Specialist; Qualified Military Relocation Professional;
(727) 710-8036 - Jack Cell (727) 710-8035 - Cyndee Cell
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Clearwater Florida - Dear Mr./Mrs. Home seller today there almost 3000 Clearwater Fl Homes for sale. I would guess that most sellers don’t realize that after January 2010 FHA appraisals now have a 4 month shelf life. So while it’s not officially a penalty, you tell me, because now when you get what you think is a “low appraisal” on your home using the new HVCC appraisal process you may be tempted to not sell to the current buyer because the appraisal says it’s currently worth less than you believe. You may be tempted to say find I’ll let this buyer out of the purchase contract and just put your house back on the market for sale hoping to get another buyer and a better appraisal.

Well…Did you realize that the lending rules have changed and now any other potential buyers for your home for sale in Clearwater that are going to get an FHA or VA loan (which is the majority of home loans done under $300,000 in the Tampa Bay today HAVE to use that same appraisal – remember…the one you hated and just wanted to forget about?

Why? Because when a buyer is getting an FHA loan and an Appraisal / Case# is assigned – that Case# stays with that house. If a valid appraisal exists – that’s what’s going to be used so now that appraisal will actually now stay with your home for 4 months. (If you have more questions contact our local FHA expert, Brian P Forrester at 727-216-8138.

So now you can see that regardless of what future buyers WANT to offer you for your home for sale in Clearwater they can’t and still get an FHA loan for anything more than the value given in the original appraisal.

So the bottom line Mr./Mrs. Home Seller is that no matter how much buyers really do love your house or condo - our buyer’s can’t and won’t purchase overpriced Clearwater Fl homes – and your fantasy price won’t make it through the appraisal process (with ANY buyer) so if you really want to sell, please listen to what the real estate market sold homes in Clearwater (in the last 90 days) are telling us…and price your home realistically.

If you are considering buying a home in Clearwater, this is just one of the many areas we help with and why we believe you benefit from having your own representation in this process. We believe you deserve an advocate as well as all the current information available to determine a home’s value right now. We provide extensive analysis and advice to the buyers we work with based on our knowledge and experience so you can make strong offers. This can prevent you from overpaying as well as enabling you to get the home of your dreams that’s priced right as well as not risking losing $1000+ educating the home seller about his home’s value by doing home inspections, appraisals and more only to find out you can’t buy the home cause the bank won’t finance the home and the seller won’t seller for less and is actually stuck in denial.

I could go on forever with more real life real estate stories and will share more in the coming weeks – knowing that home sellers have an agent representing them – don’t you deserve the same when you plan to buy your home or beach condo?

So if you’re looking for Clearwater FL Realtors we’d like you to know that we are passionate about being your real estate advocate. We’re committed to delivering Results daily based on Integrity, Knowledge & Experience - helping you find the perfect Clearwater FL homes for sale.

Cyndee Haydon, along with her husband Jack Haydon 727-710-8036 are full-time Realtors® and owners of the Sandbars To Sunsets Inc and Lead the Sandbars To Sunsets team at Future Home Realty - They are consistently in the Top 1% of Realtors in Pinellas County because they get results and are known for their outrageously happy clients with over 85+ video testimonials from raving fans. Providing the Local Expertise, Proven Results, Communication at the highest level, and a Client Experience that makes others comfortable referring them to those they care about. When looking for a proven professional you can trust - they believe you deserve: Experienced Resort & Second Home Specialist; Accomplished Certified International Property Specialist; Proven Certified Home Luxury Marketing Specialist; Qualified Military Relocation Professional;
(727) 710-8036 - Jack Cell (727) 710-8035 - Cyndee Cell
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Clearwater Beach Florida – Well we got some good news today for people in the market to buy or sell Clearwater Beach houses and condos. There may be a light at the end of the tunnel that should help because the limits on conforming loans and the availability of Jumbo loans is improving. I actually wrote a detailed article almost one year ago explaining why the lack of Jumbo loans would hurt both buyers and sellers as well as the overall Clearwater real estate market. It’s taken us a long time to see this situation improve any.

Banks are finally starting to loosen up (translation: feeling more secure about our real estate market which is good for all of us) and it should make it easier for people to buy second homes or move up to homes over the $417,000 conventional loan limit. The Los Angeles times recently reported that the average interest rates on a 30 year fixed rate jumbo fell to 5.79% which is a five year low. You may remember that we were seeing painful rates of 7.5% last summer for our most qualified best buyers which was extremely frustrating and actually caused several of our clients to put their plans to purchase on hold.

Luckily, we work with some of the best local lenders so we have been able to successfully help our clients purchase the homes and condos they wanted. Lenders who really ”know” the Clearwater real estate market along with waterfront homes in neighborhoods like Island Estates or Belle Isle is essential – regardless of who you’re working with – make sure your lender understands and is comfortable in our market. If you are planning to buy a condo today I highly recommend working with local lenders especially those that can do portfolio loans in-house and specialize in financing beachfront and waterfront properties. There’s nothing worse than finding the home of your dreams and having a lender that can’t perform cause you probably won’t know that until you’d spent almost $2,000 of your money.

The second bit of good news we got today was that the conforming loan limits for 2010 will remain at $417,000 like it has been for the past 5 years. This is actually great news in my opinion because that means you can purchase a property for up to $520,000 and still be a standard conforming loan which may enable you to get even more attractive rates. $520,000 buys a lot more beachfront and waterfront than it did 5 years ago.

We are also getting signs that lenders are loosening up about lending on beachfront condos (luckily we’re not Miami) - we are also seeing most condos are being listed for prices within @92% of what they’ll end up selling for and I was encouraged to see an appraisal come back for one of our buyers where it stated the market was “stable” not “declining” – when I ran the 6 month comparable sales against the 3 month sales I found it had actually increased slightly – we’ll keep monitoring this for you condominium building by building and neighborhood by neighborhood to give you the best insider information to make good decisions – whether you’re considering buying or selling in the next few months.

My intent was not to make this a Tampa Mortgage themed week however it’s never been more important to be informed on what’s happending in this very dynamic market and I’ve got another article in my head about the impact of FHA appraisals on sellers right now.

If you’re looking for a Clearwater FL Realtor we’d like you to know that we are passionate about being your real estate advocate. We’re committed to delivering Results daily based on Integrity, Knowledge & Experience - helping you find the perfect Clearwater FL homes.

Cyndee Haydon, along with her husband Jack Haydon 727-710-8036 are full-time Realtors® and owners of the Sandbars To Sunsets Inc and Lead the Sandbars To Sunsets team at Future Home Realty - They are consistently in the Top 1% of Realtors in Pinellas County because they get results and are known for their outrageously happy clients with over 85+ video testimonials from raving fans. Providing the Local Expertise, Proven Results, Communication at the highest level, and a Client Experience that makes others comfortable referring them to those they care about. When looking for a proven professional you can trust - they believe you deserve: Experienced Resort & Second Home Specialist; Accomplished Certified International Property Specialist; Proven Certified Home Luxury Marketing Specialist; Qualified Military Relocation Professional;
(727) 710-8036 - Jack Cell (727) 710-8035 - Cyndee Cell
Cyndee's Google Profile